Friday, May 25, 2007

1/3 of Americans take Bible literally

Once again, a poll shows that almost one-third of Americans believe that the Bible is the word of God and that every word is to be taken literally. Of those who do not believe the Bible's contents are to be taken literally, the majority believe that the book is nevertheless the actual word of God. Not surprisingly, belief in the literal meaning of the Bible is highest among those with the lowest education.

What is frustrating, of course, is that the same people who believe that the Bible is to be taken literally are almost always the ones who push the Bible's so-called teachings down the throats of the rest of us, yet they would kill themselves if they ever attempted to follow the literal mandates of the book.

6 Comments:

Funny that the more religious people try to live by the true dictates of their religions, no matter which one it is, the more nutcase they appear. Maybe people should take a closer look at what they are doing when they participate as a "moderate."

Do they really believe the talking donkey story? Or do they just feel like they have to say they do? Or do they really hope nobody will ask? Why do they need this?

What I really want to know. Why does claiming to believe that thousands of years ago there was a talking donkey make them a better person?

I once met a woman who told me she couldn't do this and couldn't do that unless it was "scriptural." I asked her why she chose to live her life based on ancient Jewish laws, and she became slack-jawed.

Amazing she couldn't come up with a single reason, when there are actually defensible reasons. Her ignorance of her own culture is remarkable.

One, I would accept reasons like "group identification." She does this and that because that's what her co-Jews do and it makes her a part of a community.

Two, she doesn't do these things because they are "scriptural." How ridiculous. That's how Southern Baptists speak. The TORAH is a shining artifact of the past. Most Jewish laws that people follow today are Talmudic or post-Talmudic. They are laws that were actually designed to deal with life in the diaspora, though to some degree they seem nonetheless unable to bend adequately to a modern world.

Clearly this is not a person with much information to impart on the subject. Too bad. --L